


Friend of a friend of a friend

by sadfuckboy



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Queer Friendship, they are queer. they are learning to truly be friends for the first time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:22:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26380336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadfuckboy/pseuds/sadfuckboy
Summary: Pull too much, push too much and watch it get further and further away from you. Adoration without communication will just make you blind and deaf.
Relationships: Nami & Vinsmoke Sanji, Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji, well its implied but there really isn't any of it actually
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	Friend of a friend of a friend

**Author's Note:**

> this is written in like a day and barely proofread I'm lovering my posting threshold majorly and just do this for fun and mindless brain exercise. 
> 
> SUMMARY:  
> I've just been thinking about how Sanji and Nami's relationship would change if Sanji got into a committed relationship and started to just treat her like he'd treat everyone else. Nami is so cute and casual with other boys in the crew but Sanji makes their relationship so hard.

There’s this.. lack of casuality in Sanji. Six in the morning sun burning holes to the curtains he stands in the kitchen, hair already dry after shower. Brushed straight with the lines of his beard blade sharp. He flips an omelette with grace, long line of cigarette smoke mixing with the fumes rising from the pan. Flicking the ciggy over the ashtray without much thought, head miles away from here. 

Nami laid half on the table serving nothing but authentic early morning chic. Scruffy hair and face slightly bloated, shiny with her morning skin cream. She too was deep in thought but her mind reached no further than few meters. Trying to see through the buttoned up balenciaga and fitted jeans. It wasn’t the clean cut expression. Her look was always calculated too. Her bathrobe was a highly feminine dream and there was a deep sense of preparation in her routines and life. But she was never afraid to look unready or how she felt. She had no need for performance of perfection or concept of character. She never took too much though into how she’d be read, just what she felt like doing. Being something nice would come alongside her aims, not be something she planned and calculated for. Sanji however-.

“Do you want garlic this time or are you in a mood for something else?” He turned around next to the stove. Resting his back on the counter and making Nami view him in full.

There was a weird sense of engagement in this casual gesture. It felt like neither of them had really faced each other in a long while, despite their everyday being so everyday. Something had changed, and it was heavily born from the fact that Sanji had changed. Weird study in their relationship’s unbalance. He had brought so much that despite his submissive place he also held the control their dynamic. 

Had Sanji, for a lack of a better term, grown up? Or had his romance centric personality just progressed to its natural other state? Now that he was committed to someone. Commitment in the man’s world being a law so absolute it changed all the relationships around him. No more shirts soaked in blood and fear of looking women in their eyes. No more obsession and crying over the sight of beauty nor seeing god in locks that fall over the shoulder. No more screaming and no more special treatment, for that was all reserved for someone else. No more seeing Nami so different. And by that, finally seeing Nami as herself.

“Oi, Nami?” She didn’t even realise she had not even internalised the question, let alone answer.  
“Ah,.. What?” She slapped her cheeks softly and raised her posture. Little taps to her consciousness to make her wake up.

Sanji who would have previously squirmed in adoration and fallen on two knees just smiled lightly, but with a new type of warmth he’d only recently acquired. Blowing smoke out of his nose. “What am I going to put in your omelette?” 

“Aah, your choice! Something fresh maybe?” She peeked curiously over the table to the stove but didn't catch a glimpse of its treasure.

Nami’s relationship with Sanji was different than most. They had grown a deep bond, like everyone in Straw hats. Unspoken and unbreakable, a deeper understanding. But sometimes things should be discussed, lived through and acted, not just known. That’s why she’d always been close to Zoro. Their journey had started with him saving her and they’d grown so customed to working with each other she relied on him without feeling small or on the way. She knew there were things she was capable of that Zoro could never master. And he had made sure she knew he respected her capability a lot. Due to the lack of either of them having secrets their bond was based on the sheer time they spent together and the absolute sense of casualty between them. On rougher waters they slept in the same room to give each other peace of mind, for Zoro to help and Nami to know when help was needed.

Zoro didn’t understand many material things, which made up a huge portion of Nami’s life, but that contrast made them interesting company for each other. This lack of interest in the material also made it so that Zoro held no need for larger social constructs or learned customs, which had always held Nami down. In his stubbornness and simplicity he saw her like not that many others did.

Sanji was harder. There was none of that "deep sense of power so strong he was never afraid to anything" that Zoro had. Sanji had grown up with nothing but awareness for his relationship to others. Longer he lived and the more he was abandoned and more he abandoned himself. With time all he really came to care about was that he didn’t get rejected by the right people. He was always tipping towards being what he thought others thought he would be and less about who he really was. As if to make sure he had control in the wast ocean of connection. Have control that was ultimately always impossible to attain. At least in a way that doesn’t tear you apart.

click. Sanji planted a gold rimmed plate in front of her. Sliding his finger over the complicated pattern surrounding a sunny omelet with leek and a unfamiliar vegetable picked from an island on the way. Little things Sanji does when other people aren’t looking. Is this him? 

“Ohh~ Thank you.” Nami smiled and Sanji, smiled back? Sound of coffee dripping and morning breeze flowing outside. He returned to the pan and dropped the other half to himself. Break bread. And sat down on the table across from her.

Orange juice, jug of water, plates. Nami picked up a fork and split a piece from the egg. Closing her eyes as she floated in the taste, almost humming in adoration. Her ambitions might be global but her joys were simple and tasty. She opened her eyes again and found Sanji slowly digging into his piece, one hand folding over yesterday's newspaper. Things were so casual and it fully sinked in how a reality Nami had once taken for granted had shaped into something else entirely. 

“Sanji… You really are different now.” For her saying something like that was so easy. She’d left her sense of fear on the gravel road she tore her knees on one summer long, long time ago. She leaned to rest her head in her hand, wondering, and Sanji lifted his gaze to meet hers. There was suddenly a blush in his cheeks. “Oh. Really? ...What do you mean.” His gaze drifted lower in the table.

Nami smiled and pointed at them and surrounding room, the surrounding situation. The simple absurdity of them, alone together and just existing. Once a pure impossibility. “Ah, oh. Guess I really have.” He scratched the back of his head. And repeated his words quietly under his breath. 

She stared at him with searching eyes. She didn’t really know what she wanted from this conversation. Guess she just wanted to share some real spoken understanding between them. Understanding that things really had changed, and that it was.. good, actually. “I like it Sanji. It feels like I can finally see you.” 

“Really? Huh.” He spinned the fork between his fingers. Face a bit unreadable and clearly thinking. Furrowing his visible brow, mostly in embarrassment. Even though he must have realised the same thing as well, long time ago. It had been such a change. He’d been so captivated yet so hard to reach emotionally. And now he just.. was right there. Like that’s just how he had always been.

“Guess dating has really consumed me.” He let out a chuckle. “I really was bit of a smackhead while single.” Nami chuckled loudly at that. Little bit. Sanji turned more red, but soon after that, looked a bit pained. As if there really was, or had been for a long time, on his side too, a realisation after realisation. A heart waiting to be delivered. “Nami.” You could see he wanted to reach for her hand. And if he was anyone else but himself, knees deep in mental locks, he would have. But some things need time. “I realise now more than ever that during our shared times I’ve given you a lot of shitty behavior to deal with. Like, even excluding the harassment I’ve been a real handful. As much as you’ve given me shit back. It’s still my fault we were never able to fully connect.” He stared to his side in silence, until he huffed out a long breath. “Damn, I really am an imbecile. But I'm actually really trying not to be now? Or something at least.” He peeked at Nami, who stared back at him, head now resting on both her hands, elbows on the table. 

They just stared at each other for a moment until Nami beamed with glee. “Oh wow, I can't believe you've come this far." Little chuckle in her voice. "But thank god. Zoro is horrible shopping company.” All the tension in the room eased and both of them laughed out loud. Empty kitchen feasting on the sound.

Sanji leaned back on the chair, clearly embarrassed but smiling. “Guess so guess so. I’ve been in love with the guy for years and I still have never seen him wear anything else but lost and found stuff he steals from open gyms.”


End file.
